Super Computer Found In China

The fastest computer in the world isn’t crunching numbers in Tennessee anymore.

“The New York Times” reports the new champion is handling mathematical calculations in China. Jack Dongarra, a computer scientist at the University of Tennessee who keeps track of supercomputer speeds, says the Chinese computer “blows away the existing number-one machine.” The Chinese computer reportedly has one-point-four-times the power of what was previously the fastest machine, housed at a national laboratory in Tennessee. Super computers are used by governments to solve problems related to defense, energy, finance and science. They can simulate the effect of a nuclear explosion but they’re also used by individual manufacturers. Procter & Gamble, for example, used supercomputer calculations to determine how to insert Pringles into cans without breaking them. The Chinese computer reportedly cost billions of dollars and uses thousands of chips made by the U.S. companies Intel and Nvidia.